For more than 85 minutes, the visitors in green and white were spoiling what Sequim attackers had in mind.
But two minutes into the second overtime against Port Angeles Saturday afternoon,
Sequim’s Kai Antrim put away the game – and the cross-peninsula rivalry – for another season.
Antrim’s 11th goal of the season came two minutes into the second overtime and gave the Wolves a 1-0 win, helping further fuel their postseason hopes.
The win gives Sequim (5-3-1 in Olympic League play, 6-3-2 overall) a chance to catch Port Townsend for the league’s second and final playoff berth.
But it didn’t come easily, as
Sequim had their hands full with an ever-improving Roughrider squad. Port Angeles, which earlier this season had tied a strong Port Townsend squad and lost to league-leading Olympic 1-0, gummed up the middle where Sequim midfielders Jeff Catton and Greg Dunbar like to create havoc and spur scoring opportunities for Antrim.
"It was … their stopper," Catton said, who stymied the Wolves’ offensive attack. "We were just booting it up. Last year, the same thing happened here against P.A."
In 2007, Greg Dunbar took a Catton corner kick and headed it past the Port Angeles keeper for a 2-1 victory in regulation.
This year, it took 88 minutes to find a winner.
"They had one man marking Kai (Antrim, Sequim’s top scorer) and three other guys watching him," said Sequim coach Dave Brasher. "We sometimes tend to just try to get it to Kai, let him finish, but we were trying to build more of an attack."
Brasher credited P.A. midfielders Sean Keegan and Raphael Carvalho for disrupting Sequim’s offense.
Still, it seemed like Sequim’s build-the-attack philosophy would come to fruition late in regulation as Sequim had several near-scores: John Textor’s shot that sailed high at 64 minutes, Dunbar’s header at 71 minutes, a header by Antrim at 78 minutes, a penalty kick by David LaBeaume in extra injury time. All, however, fell short.
Finally, with three minutes left in the second overtime, Antrim stripped a Port Angeles defender, shuffled a bit and stroked a shot comfortably in the net’s right side.
Sequim’s Matt Bedinger got the shutout in goal but he got some big help from Keller Batson. Playing center defender for teammate Austin Sanford, who missed the game for a family vacation, Batson saved a shot-on-goal at 62 minutes with a clean slide tackle and kept the Wolves’ side clear for much of both halves.
Sequim still has tests left in the season if they want to play in the postseason: an April 29 home date with 2A division-leading Kingston (results were unavailable at press time), an April 30 date at winless Klahowya, and an all-important May 3 home date with Port Townsend. A win against Klahowya and the Redskins would likely lock up postseason play.
Second-half goals
gets Wolves by Bulldogs
Catton scored two goals in a three-minute spurt in the second half, turning a 1-0
Sequim lead into a blowout as the Wolves toppled North Mason 5-0 in Belfair April 22.
Antrim opened the scoring with a score in the 11th minute off a Catton assist for the lone first-half goal.
Catton got his third goal of the season off a feed from Textor to make it 2-0 and followed with another at 60 minutes off a Keller Batson assist.
Sequim’s LaBeaume found the net at 64 minutes off an Eric Huston assist and Antrim added his 10th goal of the season – tops on the team, and a school record 38 scores for his SHS career – with five minutes on the clock.
Bedinger earned the shutout in goal.
